Tag Archives: Art

Filmed over the space of a few days but edited to ten minutes. Congratulations to Lydia Howe for her mastery of the lens and her way with people. Thanks for showing that the arts are well catered for alongside all the other good works carried out on a daily basis by LIF.

After a week of making up bookmarks, wall-plates etc. and framing of prints, we loaded the scriptorium into the car and headed off to wildest Medieval Dunstable. Only four miles down the road but eight hundred years on the time scale.

We were greeted at the entrance of Priory House by one of what seemed to be a whole battalion of immaculately turned out Army Cadets. We were shown to our tent by Lisa the event organiser and, helped by half a dozen Cadets, unloaded everything into a marquee that had been erected onto the rain-soaked grass. At that time, in the totally empty space which was to house us, The Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service, The Dunstable History Society and The Manshead Archaeological Society, were about six large, soaking wet tables. Three of these were quickly dried off for us by the cadets and placed in what I thought would be the prime spot. I left Gill to arrange the stall while I went off to park the car. The idea was to have one table as a work bench, one for our wares, and another, spread with paper and scattered with double pencils and coloured felt tips, for anyone to try their hand at calligraphy. When I returned it was looking like this.

Then after setting up my writing slope and trying out the pens and coloured inks, I found that due to the humidity, the colours were feathering on the card and though I could get some quite pretty effects, it was not a good representation of the lettering arts. Luckily I found that gold and silver worked quite well, so by the time our first customers appeared I had my mind made up for me that the metallic inks were the best alternative.

Here I am with one of the first of many customers which became a steady stream throughout the day.

Lady Gillian taking her shift.

A break in proceedings while all visitors were watching the battles or the jousts, punctuated by the roar of cannon fire and the shouts of the combatants. These occurred at intervals during each day and were performed by the Medieval Siege Society. We were pleased to meet a number of the S0ciety members.

Gill gets in some practice and then has a wander round with the camera,

and finds Trevor James of Beccles playing an assortment of hand made medieval musical instruments.

It was good to see so many people, both young and old, taking an interest in the calligraphy demonstrations and getting the hang of using double pencils.

Over the two days we used about 30 metres of lining paper and only had to scrap one sheet, because it had been covered in obscenities by one youngster who had been told “Anything you like” in answer to his question, “What shall I put on here?” He then ran off laughing. Gill was very quick to remove the offending piece before it was noticed by anyone else.

We used up all but one of the bookmarks and had only two or three wall-plates to take home with us. It was good also, that a few people liked the prints, both framed and unframed, enough to buy them.

It was a joy for us both to work with these budding scribes, most of whom were eager to blow a little magic into the bottle, because it “made the pen work” and then watch it swirling around in the ink. Truth be told, watching their faces, the adults also thought this might be true.

This young lady took lots of snaps. When I commented on her really tasty camera, she hugged it and laughed and said, “It is my baby”.

I was pleased so many friends came to say hello. Some of whom we had lost contact with. It was really good to see you. Gill, a Dunstablian, was recognised by a neighbour she had not seen since childhood, and people she used to work alongside at the L&D hospital. Heheh! Fame at last.

These two days have flown by. We have made another load of friends and contacts. There are promises of intended commissions, and invitations to similar events all over the country. The weather has been great in spite of the downpour the night before we arrived, and in spite of the “doom and gloom” forecast for the weekend.

Many thanks to Jean Yates, the Project Officer, and Dunstable Town Council for inviting us. To the Army Cadets for brightening up a really gloomy start, all the cheerful faces of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade who came to see us throughout the weekend, (luckily, it seems there were no major incidents for them to deal with). And mostly to Lisa, the Event Organiser and her assistant, Lauren, for all you did for us before and during the event. You are a great team.

By the bye.

Just a few yards from where we were working. On the war memorial, Stenning, C.C. Gill’s uncle, who lied about his age to join the RAF. Became a rear gunner and was shot down, aged 18. RIP.

Strangely enough, next year’s event, on the centenary of the 1st World War, will be remembering Dunstable during WW I. Those who know me well will have an idea of what or whom I shall be portraying, if, indeed, I am invited.

It was good to see that PPP has obviously been partaken of over the last few days. If letters have not actually been made with pen and ink, or passages planned upon an actual page, then there must have been a great deal of making of letters and planning of pages taking place in the minds of our scribes in the making. Perhaps my theory of “Don’t count sheep. Make letters”, is bearing fruit. The pens are now beginning to work as they should, more ink on the page than on the fingers this week. Some nice work is beginning to emerge.

Due no doubt to my involvement with the Red Dot exhibition some of my plans for this class had to be put on hold, hopefully for another time. I had planned to bring along my collection of home made equipment, cola pens and the like, some vellum scraps and other interesting bits and pieces I have amassed over the years. I stupidly left them at home, along with the camera and lap-top. I did, however, have some hand cut quills, bamboo and reed pens for everyone to try. Everyone was so taken with the bamboo though, that we got no further down this road.

My take on the Cola pen. The RED STRIPE Pen. To my mind, much more fun emptying the can. A chisel cut pencil to dip. A needlepoint and 6mm with film reservoir, bamboo, and a 2mm Reed.

Make sure mummy and daddy are supervising. Heheh. We don’t want any cut fingers! With scissors, cut top and bottom from the can, making sure you have first downed the contents. (Adults, it might be best to leave this stage ’til tomorrow, depending on the strength of the aforesaid). Carefully, (The cut tin can will be very sharp). Open up and then fold down the length of the metal. Cut whatever shape you are looking for for the nib…then continue down the length,making sure to leave enough for the handle. These are rolled and then taped tightly. Perhaps strengthening by rolling the handle round a pencil. You could make a much prettier job by soldering. Just make sure that all bare edges are covered or blunted. ‘speriment and enjoy.

You might like to note that I have been experimenting with various materials to use as reservoirs. The best so far is old fashioned film or even negatives. Used flat it can be cut and pushed into a slit formed in the quill, reed, bamboo or whatever, or rolled into a spring and pushed into the aperture.

We then had an impromptu discussion on the differences in scripts over the years and how, due to the number of books being made, the speed of hand needed to produce them, and the scarcity of animal skins, there was a shift from the rounded forms of Uncial, Carolingian and Humanist, to the much more compressed angular forms of Blackletter or Gothic scripts.

The comparative roundness of Blackletter capitals enough to let in a little light to the page.

And so, we regretfully started to wind up this final session of what to me has been a most rewarding five weeks of calligraphy workshops. I am hoping that from these humble beginnings of Roundhand and Roman scripts, all who have participated will now have the inclination to learn more, to hone their skills by way of practice, practice, practice, and go on to become the scribe that I always wished to be.

We all agreed it is a shame that the group should come to an end. I have written to my contact from “Luton Culture”, with a view to an extension, either at the museum or some other venue. It seems she is on leave until Wednesday May 8th. Once I have word, I shall update this blog and will be in touch.

Like this:

April 22nd and an invitation, due to one exhibitor of a group unfortunately having to cancel, I am invited to include some of my work in the local Red Dot Gallery, exhibition which is to open on May 1st so I have one week to delve into my portfolio of framed / unframed pieces and works in progress.

I very soon realised that I would need more frames and as time was getting short decided to take a trip to Zanart Ezeframe. I have been using their expertise for around thirty years or so and have always been extremely pleased with their products and service. The workshop is within a 20 minute or so drive of home so is also very handy. I subsequently posted on my Facebook page :- Have just spent a pleasant afternoon in Dane Lane, Wilstead, with the folks at Zanart EzeFrame. Fun to watch them chase a huge wasp / hornet? around the workshop. Came away with 6 frames plus a couple of mounts cut, while I waited, to be used at next week’s Red Dot exhibition. Great service and huge range of framing options. I recommend a look at their website and, if you can visit, a browse through their sale items.

Then a very busy weekend polishing and framing and in the end delivered 15 pieces to Red Dot on Monday April 29th. Luckily, as I had so many other things to take care of, Sam and the staff offered to hang my offerings so I left them in very capable hands.

Today, May 1st, I just had to go along to see the result. Here we are, the fruits of my labours all mixed up with an assortment of other goodies from Mike La-traille, Dave Poulton, Ruth Goodman,Nick Colyer, and Zakia Abdullah.

Before I begin this week’s write up, I would like to thank Andrew for getting in touch and offering some toughened glass suitable for light-tables, and also for delivering same to the museum. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. They were soon snapped up and are probably in use already.

Here Peter is trying my portable Light-Table and finding it easier to transfer lines from his guideline sheet. For more information on working with Light- Tables, especially layout issues as discussed this week, have a look at this earlier post on hints and tips.

Now, while beginning to get to grips with broad nib and ink, we explored how the balance of the written page is found, bearing in mind that the optical centre, is, as with letter construction, (i.e. the central cross stroke on “E” sits on the centre line rather than straddling or hanging from it), slightly above a measured centre. The hints from “My Cool School”, on putting together a brochure give a very good illustration. As the author writes,

“You can measure all you want, follow all the rules, and do everything you have been taught, but the bottom line is: If it doesn’t Look right – it isn’t!”

Next, how to plan a page of script, perhaps a poem, without having to write out the whole page only to find you haven’t left enough room. It is a good idea to always copy text from a printed page. It saves any ambiguity (specially when dealing with a client), and at a glance you can pick out the longest line. After first working out, with your guide-line sheets, how many lines you can get on your page, write this longest line in the chosen script and size. If it is too long or short for the sheet it is meant for, you can either modify the page size, or the size of script, or use a more compressed script, or opt to write that particular line on two lines. Either way you are now in a position to know that what you have planned for the page will actually fit. Your work will now fail only due to faulty execution rather than bad planning.

Having been asked to PPP with all their might, the slightly bemused, exhausted group, left with these words ringing in their ears, “Heheheh”. “Just wait to see what I have in store for you next week”

Looking forward to the final session, for now, I hope, and to seeing you all next week.

Sorry to see a few people missing from the last session due to holidays, work commitments, illness etc. Hope to see you all again soon. Some new faces though, made the mix of abilities even more interesting and everyone had the chance to recap as the roundhand alphabet was demonstrated once more with the double pencils and then later with a broad nib.

Then, a look around the room to find that most had been doing their homework “PPP” and had even made a start on the Roman Capitals. Some though were a bit confused by my notations on the sample. I apologise for not pointing out the formula for letter proportion which can be found on Lesson 2 Roman Capitals.

Monumental capitals might be 8 to 10 nib-widths high. These on the example are 7. Pen angle should be 30 degrees except for diagonals -AWXYZ- 45 degrees, and legs of N, written with an almost upright pen. Capitals in body text are better kept to perhaps half again as high as the minuscules. Widths of Roman capitals vary from 1 nib width – ”I”, to half a square – “E”, 3/4 – ”G”, 1 square – ”O”, to one and a half squares -”W”.

We have one left handed scribe among us and it might be worth mentioning that he took calligraphy classes while on a graphic design course but was never asked to try to write from below the line rather than over the top, which is more natural for a “leftie” when writing with a pencil or ballpoint, but not as efficient when using a broad nibbed pen. I must say I am impressed with his progress so far with the double pencils, I am hoping the transition to pen and ink will be as painless.

Just a couple of comments in passing, this week, on spacing, make sure to use the balloon example, even when practising, to give your eye, brain, hand and arm, plenty of exercise and to build up coordination.

On layout. You will notice that all your guideline sheets have borders. Not very big ones so far as we need to conserve paper while practising. Later on in the course we will be looking into the correlation of white and black space but it is a good idea to bear in mind that a page with half the amount of black space to white, if nicely balanced, is easier to read and much more restful to the eye than a page crammed from corner to corner.

To make it easier to work out what this is all about. The x’s to the left of the page have the space of two x’s between them, making room for ascender and descender . The x’s to the right of the page have only one x between them, useful for a page of capitals or uncials, or, short or intermingling ascenders and descenders. So if we always work in multiples of 1/8 of an inch, one guide line sheet will suffice for any number of layouts. More on this later.

Hoping you are able to make the next session where we will be putting the above into action.

Apologies to all my Fb friends who had to put up with this rant yesterday. Here it is again but with a couple more observations. Inspired by a letter from The President and members of Ravensworth WI in the Darlington & Stockton Times, that … Continue reading →